N.J. is getting $10M to safeguard elections from hacking. It may not be enough.

New Jersey will spend nearly $10 million in federal money beefing up cybersecurity, improving training and other steps to safeguard its voting systems ahead of November's midterm elections, officials said Friday.

The money is the Garden State's share of a $380 million pot approved by Congress to shore up federal elections system across the country.

But it won't cover the biggest thing New Jersey has to do to prevent election meddling, according to most experts: switch to machines with a paper trail.

A recent congressional report -- as well as testimony before New Jersey's legislature -- has shown New Jersey has among the most vulnerable elections systems in the country, in part because most counties use digital voting machines that create no physical record of votes cast.

Replacing those machines would be costly. One estimate, from the Brennan Center for Justice, put the price tag for new voting machines statewide between $40 million and $60 million.

The $10 million New Jersey officials are spending does include a small "pilot program" for smaller jurisdictions to test out new machines. It also creates a now job withing the state Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness or the Division of Military and Veterans Affairs focused entirely on cybersecurity and elections.

Some lawmakers and advocacy groups have been raising the alarm amid ongoing investigations into efforts by the Russian government to disrupt U.S. elections in 2016 and beyond.

New Jersey elections and homeland security officials say they are not aware of any data breaches or looming security threats to New Jersey's voting systems.

"Improving New Jersey's current election infrastructure has been an ongoing process, which has included planned database upgrades and increased cybersecurity partnerships, New Jersey Secretary of State Tahesha Way said in a statement Friday. "But this infusion of funding can help set the foundation for what we hope can be one of the most advanced and secure election systems in the nation."

Stephanie Harris, the chair of a voting task force at the nonprofit group Coalition fo Peace Action, said New Jersey's election vulnerabilities date back far longer than 2016.

Her group was part of a years-long legal fight to force New Jersey to replace its current machines -- most of which collect and record votes electronically -- with ones that produce a paper record that can later be audited if questions arise.

Harris said the most immediate threat to election integrity in New Jersey had "nothing to do with Russia, but with human error or a malevolent action" in local elections, where a race can hinge on a handful of votes.

She said Gov. Phil Murphy -- who told her group during his campaign that he supported the move to paper ballots -- could issue an executive order speeding up the process in time for the November elections.

A spokesman for Murphy did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

S.P. Sullivan may be reached at ssullivan@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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